Binge it if you can

I’ve never read the webtoon so this is based off this show as a standalone drama and not as an adaptation. I started watching this 4 episodes were out because I saw that hair-tying scene on my Twitter/X timeline and it completely convinced me. And the show proved me right — I binged all the released and couldn’t wait for next week. The main leads had amazing chemistry, the antagonists felt like actual threats, and I couldn’t wait to see how the revenge would play out.

As the weeks came around, I still enjoyed the episodes, but I did feel like the show started losing steam.

First, the main leads’ screentime dwindled and we got more and more scenes of our antagonists (of which there were many). It added good tension to see things from their perspective, but it also added frustration. The leads had so much chemistry and tension and we only got to see a few minutes of that every week.

And as more episodes went on, we ran into a different issue: we did get screentime for our leads, but it didn’t necessarily feel like they were progressing. We’d get the same hugs and conversations where they talked about being there for each other and fighting together against the bad guys. These scenes were cute but it felt got sort of repetitive, especially now that we’d gotten all the tension-filled conversations out of the way earlier and it seemed like the next plot development wasn’t happening anytime soon. I still really enjoyed scenes where they cared for each other, but all the stakes felt a little lower by this point, and I started to feel like the revenge was almost too easy. Sides had been chosen, secrets were already revealed, and most importantly, the main antagonists had stayed quiet or had lost too many battles in a row.

Honestly, I was pretty lukewarm on the entire plot by then. Looking back, I don’t remember a singular satisfying moment where our main female lead got to face off against her mother in a moment where I felt like they were on equal footing, where the stakes were high and I truly didn’t know who was going to win. The revenge plot seemed to delve into smaller moments where they would address this one thing first and then that other thing, and I wasn’t sure there was a climax. Even the build-up to some other reveals and to the ML’s perspective felt overdue and a little underwhelming.

Episode 11 was a turning point. Things that needed to be revealed had been revealed, it felt like the revenge had been finished, and the antagonists had been out of the picture — most of which was off-screen, I might add, which made the story feel somewhat incomplete — long enough for The Time Jump to happen. Yes, the dreaded time jump. I’ve never been a fan of the time jump. It’s fine as an epilogue but I’ve never once enjoyed it done in the middle of the story and this was no different. It just felt kind of…weird. Like they didn’t know what to do after all the villains were put away, so they had to bring them back, but had to wait some time for them to be able to. Story-wise, it was a bit confusing to have it happen after everything was seemingly over, but ultimately I don’t think it was blown out of proportion, which was good.

I think part of the plot simmering down also had to do with the female lead, who was really proactive in the first half and then started being more aimless in the second half. Still, I liked the message the drama left us with — that the best revenge for her was having a happy marriage, a healthy family, and a good life. Despite the slowdown, I think this drama had a really good finale episode.

Overall, it was still a pretty good watch — this was my second favorite watch behind Castaway Diva during its runtime, but if I were to recommend it to someone I would suggest binging it rather than watching it slowly. You might be able to retain more momentum that way.

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Namhyeok supremacy

I have to start this off with my favorite part of — Suhyeok and Namra, who totally stole the show, both individually and together. I just loved Namra's character arc in particular, and though romance is by no means a main focus of this show, their scenes are the ones I keep going back to rewatch.

With that being said, I think it was really good that romance wasn't a main focus, and yet it was there in certain light-hearted moments, reminding us that these characters are still kids who deal with crushes and first kisses and butterflies. I think both of the main relationships were done absolutely beautiful and we got just the right amount for them.

I think my main criticism with this is just the massive amount of unnecessary characters there are. I liked the two main groups for sure (although I admit some of those characters felt extra — it was as if they were to die in case someone needed to be killed off) and some of the peripheral characters like parents, and I anxiously awaited moments where their paths would cross. But other than that, there were a lot of other character groups and arcs that took up time and got incomplete arcs like the politician, the livestreamer, or the pregnant girl; I either didn't care for those or were downright annoyed with them. Even some of the characters that were more relevant kind of had their character development swerving off-kilter in a non-sensical way.

I also felt like the last episode was really rushed; I felt like taking out some of those unnecessary characters and spending more time with the main group could have given the changes in the last episode more screentime — I also wouldn't have been opposed to having this be a full 16-episodes so we could see more about the aftermath and maybe get an ending that was more satisfying. It currently stands a bit bittersweet and I have mixed feelings on that.

In conclusion - watch for Suhyeok and Namra.

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It felt like a majority of me watching this drama was just waiting for things to start happening — the pacing of it is a LOT slower than I expected, and part of that is why I never could full get into it. A lot of people have hated on the ending saying it was chaotic and rushed, but I actually found that I really enjoyed those episodes and the episodes where there were big reveals. Other than that, every one-hour episode felt twenty times as long.

The antagonist that started to be introduced near the middle of the drama was something that REALLY intrigued me, especially given the parallel storylines — but it felt like the character and tension was never really explored fully. It was solved quickly and seemed to be used more as a plot device for separating the main couple.

Speaking of the main couple — I don't think I was ever fully on board with them. The relationship always felt more familial, and age gap aside, I just didn't feel any chemistry between them. I also didn't like the secondary ship as much because the relationship just seemed to lack any content and connection aside from them being fated. Overall the arcs for both ships felt repetitive.

There are a few things that I appreciate about the ending. but other things that I don't like. I'm also a time-skip-hater, but for some reason, I didn't dislike it as much in Goblin, but I'm not sure if it has to do with me not being emotionally invested at all or if it felt more in line with the way the plot was going.

(Full disclosure: I've got some basic philosophical differences with the themes of this show, so that might have to do with me not clicking with it — more specifically, it's the idea of romantic destiny that I kind of scoff at.)

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Mellow but underwhelming

I know this one is getting glowing reviews but it really felt underwhelming to me. Objectively I think everything is well-written, but I just didn't really feel the spark in it.

To start with the good things, it's definitely a mellow, down-to-earth drama. No conflicts feel overblown, there aren't any purely evil villain characters, and misunderstandings are understandable and realistic. I also think the age gap was handled really respectfully; they talk about it explicitly and emphasize that it began one-sided (that it would be weird otherwise). By the time feelings are revealed, the characters are older and wiser, and the romance is mature and communicative.

Ironically, I think this is one of the few dramas that would've benefitted from having a little more drama so that I would feel more stakes. I don't know if the story with the ML's backstory got as much closure as I would've wanted, considering it was the most interesting part since aside from the romance, SZ unfortunately doesn't feel that well-rounded.

Another thing is that the side characters feel lacking. The best one was Sang Zhi's older brother; the sibling relationship was perfectly depicted and hilarious, but I do wish we knew more about him outside of it. Similarly, we get hints of the friends, roommates, and coworkers of our two leads, but they're not really fleshed beyond the cookie-cutter roles of side characters in dramas (the boy-crazy one, the smart one, the tomboy, etc.), and they definitely felt sidelined in favor of the leads. It's understandable — after all, they are leads — but it made scenes where the leads weren't together feel bland.

I really do think this would be enjoyable to viewers who like romance dramas that are low-stress, mellow, and mature, like You Are My Glory. For me, I think there's an element of liveliness that I really missed, whether it was between the leads or the other people around them.

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Great sismance makes up for a lacking ML

I'm usually not one to harp on acting but the ML here really feels woefully miscast. I watched the actor in Silent where he was sort of the quiet, studious type and I just think his role there fits him so much better. Here, the charisma that he's supposed to have as Mr. Popular just isn't there, and neither is the subtle gentleness he shows towards the FL. The acting just feels forced and awkward; the show keeps telling me about how charming and lovable this guy is, but I don't really feel any of it and I just see him going through the motions.

With that being said, I don't really think the romantic chemistry is there, but it is between the FL and her friends! I know this is a romance but the part that really shines through for me in this drama is the friendship between the three female leads. It's beautiful and heart-warming and any conflicts that they do run into are very realistic. Even the quote-unquote "evil SFL" isn't overly terrible, which is always refreshing to me. All the actresses were perfect (even though the FL is obviously gorgeous and people being afraid of her doesn't make sense, lol).

Overall, the plot is just wholesome; there aren't any overblown dramatics and communication is learned through very well-done character development. The pacing of the side plots goes a little up-and-down, but I still enjoyed them for the simple fact that I liked the 3 female leads.

Simply put, this is a comfort drama.

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Unbearable

This was horrible to watch. I know dramaland has a history of rude/jerk MLs that do nice things behind the scenes, but it is my belief that the latter probably doesn't matter if the former is just that hurtful to the FL — and this hinges a lot on how the FL takes it.

In this one, the weak and whiny FL was annoying, and the ML's coldness was just over the top. It was one of those dramas where jealousy wasn't funny and their entire relationship just seemed very toxic.

Something about the relationship progression with them being brother and sister first just felt very weird and unnatural to me.

Everything about the plot was very cliche, and it was just full of misunderstandings caused by the evil SFL.

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Cute but could have been more

This was overall a really cute and wholesome watch, but I can't shake the feeling that it could have been more, even if it was just given hour-long episodes instead of 45-minute ones.

I'm a huge fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, but I can't help but feel like the pacing for things was kind of fast. I wanted more domestic scenes where we saw them just talking to each other and doing things they liked — it doesn't have to be related to archery or about Chi Chi's parents or reminiscing about the past, I just wanted more of their banter. That was one reason I had a soft spot for their high school flashbacks.

The problem was that they tried to fit a LOT of years into not a lot of screentime, and there weren't enough markers in the plot — holidays, year-end competitions, summer trips — that let me know how much time had passed. In essence, it felt like everyone acted and looked the same, and I while I thought only days had passed between events, it was actually months.

While I also liked the student-athlete addition, I felt like Skate Into Love did it better in that the sport felt so embedded within every character's personality. Their paths to becoming better wasn't always smooth simply because they had things to learn, and not just because they got a disorder (which honestly feels too much of a noble idiocy trope for me to appreciate).

Some of the editing also took away from some emotions I wanted to feel — for example, fading to black before revealing competition results kind of took away from my ability to stress about it while watching it happen because you already knew what the result was going to be. They honestly could've used some more people sitting in the crowd as well just to have the sound of cheering. Energy goes a long way towards hyping up these competition scenes. I also hated the fast forwarding that they used to zoom in on faces.

I appreciated the heaviness given to Chi Chi's family situation, though it meant that her parents were some of my least favorite people even though there were attempts to give them redemption arcs.

Ultimately, I did like that there weren't any overblown misunderstandings, and the side pairings were really cute as well. The side characters were given enough background but not too much (though second lead could've used a LOT more development, and he just sort of fell off the face of the earth), and it was a fun friends-to-lovers watch.

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I felt like I had higher expectations for this. Having watched #Alive and Train to Busan in the past year, I had gotten used to zombie movies with fast action — TtB set the bar super high with its social commentary, and I kind of thought Kingdom would have combo of emotion and action. But it had a lot of politics in it, with a lot of administrative characters that I found hard to tell apart and just wasn't that interested in.

Ultimately, I still really like the aesthetics of the show, and there's a twist that I enjoyed quite a bit. I really like the main characters of the Crown Prince, Gun Guy, and Physician — but didn't really click with anyone else. I also liked the zombie plots in general, but overall it was too much politics, too many side characters who I didn't care about.

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Character-driven social commentary

One thing I've noticed about these Taiwanese mystery thriller dramas is that it's not necessarily about the whodunnit or about blowing your mind with plot twists. It's about making social commentary through the eyes of different characters. Copycat Killer did a really good job of that.

Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed the mystery element, but I realized I shouldn't overthink the actions of different characters and waste my time trying to figure out who did it. Instead, the drama made me think about the killer's motivations and psychology, and most of all how the media and the rest of the public enabled it.

This is a really character-driven (as opposed to plot-driven) story; if someone keeps those things in mind, I think they'll really enjoy this one.

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Slow burn excellence

I was a little nervous about the leads' relationship — after all, the characters have a TEN year age gap. But this turned out to be one of the sweetest, healthiest, most mature relationships I've ever seen and I can't put into words how much I loved seeing their feelings slowly develop. The chemistry was absolutely there but even individually, both the ML and the FL were given equal time to shine. They were such well-rounded characters with their own stories, and their relationship was built on supporting and caring for each other during those journeys. There were no stupid misunderstanding tropes and the honesty was just so refreshing. The FL is exactly how a strong female lead should be written, and the ML is respectful and kind.

The second and third couples were okay; I liked them as characters also and think the relationships also made sense, but they weren't as fleshed out and sometimes there were developments I wanted to see that I feel like the show skipped over.

But they were still good additions to the cast, and plot-wise the subplots of all the side characters were intertwined with the main one relatively well. It's interesting too to realize that there are really no clear-cut villains in the story. There are some people that are selfish and money- and power-hungry, but ultimately they didn't become "evil" and things were never that black and white. It made the drama very relatable and true-to-life.

I know some people complained that the drama started out slow but the pacing of the entire show was just perfect for me. We got to see what the characters' original lives were like, what traumas they had, who and what was important to them, how they handled conflicts, etc. It makes seeing their development at the end mean so much more.

Whether you typically watch sport dramas or not, this is one I will 100% recommend.

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Comforting but a little boring

I think this drama would be good for people who enjoyed Run On, Because This Is My First Life, and Racket Boys — all dramas that were pretty mellow and comforting, where any romance was pretty simple, straightforward, and honestly a little distant. I do love good communication between characters and I also loved seeing strangers get to know each other but I felt like I never really felt giddy or that invested in them. The relationship is almost too mellow for me (as someone who just wants a little more playfulness and casual banter).

There are also some cliches in the plot that felt a little out of place for 2021, and the pacing was a little weird with not focusing on the male lead at all until near the last few episodes.

I'm also pretty on the fence about the side stories — there are some scenes that were very touching and heart-warming but overall I definitely wasn't that invested in their stories as much and I even found them a little annoying at times.

I know 6.5 might seem like a low rating but it's not and it's really more out of indifference than dislike; I've watched worse dramas that made me feel more.

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Fun action, but not very deep

Overall I still quite enjoyed this quite a bit, but it had the potential to be a lot more. Being a huge fan of Train to Busan, I kind of couldn't help but compare and it felt like the stakes never really rose in #Alive.

There were a lot of mini "deus ex machina" moments where things just seemed to happen and save the main characters, or they just seemed to be able to fight back: plot armor, if you will. And suspense could have been handled better, I felt like the loud music was kind of a giveaway that something was about to happen, and even silence could have had more of a feeling of anticipation.

I liked the relationship between the main characters but the FL was not really developed — I wanted to know things like why she was so good at making those gadgets.

Some things were also just kind of predictable. The social media/web aspect was a little less of the story than I expected and kind of seem unnecessary altogether.

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This movie had a nice vibe and there were some really cute scenes between the leads but I still feel like it was missing something — namely, context/plot. Firstly, I wish we went more into the backstories, and secondly, there was a lot of potential for actual problems to pull the couple apart (which was what the blurb sold this movie as) but each time gap felt like it was pretty much just because they didn’t communicate. It felt like I was waiting for The Big Conflict, and it never really came.

Also, and this was understandable considering how less time a movie has vs. a drama, but I felt like the relationship between the main leads just wasn’t developed enough. They had their cute moments, but in terms of depth, every time they reunited, they just smiled at each other and it was a given that they would be together again; the time gaps just didn’t feel like time gaps because they were basically the exact same people with the exact same personalities years later.

I will say I really appreciated the entire vibe/aesthetic of this show — the lack of slow motion, special effects plus the color palette, transition screens, and not overusing OSTs…it all made the entire show feel that much more intimate and realistic.

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Humor was hit or miss

Right off the bat, I knew it wasn't my type of humor. It's a little like Melting Me Softly or After School: Lucky or Not where the humor is just kind of bizarre and illogical — the type of "omfg lolzor so randoM!!" type of humor that I liked in middle school. Even with this being said though, there were SOME moments that still made me laugh out loud.

Because of the above, I felt like the plot was just kind of boring to me because it felt like there wasn't really anything at stake.

The main couple was the one I was least interested in out of the three, and it felt like the main two characters (and the random second lead) had no personality. I loved Seo-jin and Joon-ki att first — but after she started liking him, all the banter and clashing that defined their relationship went out the window, and Seo-jin's say-it-like-it-is personality did a complete 180. In the end, Du-shik and Soo-ah (who I disliked at the start) became my favorite two characters.

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